Tuesday, March 1, 2011

I'll give you one good guess. Hmmm? On the count of three ... one, two, A PONY! Ok, ok, so it's a gray sofa. I know, not as exciting as a pony - but equally as difficult to fit into my current decorating scheme. I found the most perfect sofa, tight back, diminutive rolled arm, on 5" legs in the most yummy men's suiting flannel in a heather gray that is just P.E.R.F.E.C.T.I.O.N, and I had to have it.

Highly inspired by my friend Kelley of The Polished Pebble and her condo redo with her Crate and Barrel sofa and Noir chairs, I jumped at the opportunity and bought the beauty for my living room. It means some more changes for CDLV, big ones ... like the repainting of a room that was JUST painted, *DARN* but the more I lived with the color, and the longer Scott persisted that it wasn't his favorite either ... I think another coat of paint might just be the perfect solution.

I love how Kelley paired her gray sofa with linen and stripe for that comfortable California look we all know Kelley to do so well. But when I first talked to her about her project ... she was inspired by an old Navajo rug with it's rusty red and gray tones ... which has me thinking about all of the beautiful Turkish rugs that we have stacked up in the guest room closet.

One more thing to do ... are you as excited as I am? Care to help? LOL! Ok, back to work figuring it all out. If you've got suggestions, I've got an open ear.

Speaking of Heaven, let's take a look at the portfolio of Mr. Craig Wright, famed designer and antiques dealer, named one of Architectural Digests Top 100. One of Los Angeles' most prominent interior designers for sure, Wright's antique store, Quatrainhas a collection of fine antiques dating back to the 17th- century, along with beautiful reproductions. If you look back at the house I featured last week, designed by Wright for Michael Douglas and now ex-wife, (twice!) you can see that he's a fan of the Spanish Colonial Revival architecture for which California is known for, and champions the design aesthetic with a genteel touch better than almost any other designer today.

Now how many of you have seen this picture floating around blog land and not known who was responsible? I know I personally saw it on more than 10, and I think it's inspired 10x that ... all thanks to the curatorial eye of Mr. Wright and the vision of Diandra Douglas.

The two photos above, from Wrights personal residence as featured in Architectural Digest 2003. I love the mix of Neo-classical, French, Swedish, and American antiques. No doubt luxurious in every way, these rooms can inspire anyone at any budget.

Still here, in another one of his personal homes featured in AD 2 years prior to the first two images, you can see Mr. Wrights affinity for opulence, and his masterful way of paring the odd and unique with the every day. I'm in love with the framed art in the reading room (2 photos up). My best guess is that these are some sort of archaic antique money framed in shadow on white matte. But I may be wrong. Still, easy to replicate today and get that great custom and high end look with a visit or two to eBay searching for antique coin. I might have just given myself ... and a few of you a great idea! (South African coins are gorgeous and cheap, FYI!)

Here, in the Santa Barbara home of a client, I love how the vignettes are simple, clean. I know that I am totally guilty of over doing it. I layer, layer, and then layer some more, and unfortunately at times, the piece that I really love gets shadowed by the $1 strand of wooden beads covering 1/2 of the frame. It takes a certain confidence in a designer to leave a vignette like the one above as is. It isn't decoration ... it's art. And that's the difference Mr. Wright brings to his houses. Each and every room is like a perfect museum quality piece of livable art.

Though I've not been able to find a professional portfolio of Mr. Wright's work, (all of these photos are courtesy of AD), you can visit his store site at http://www.quatrain.net/ where there are some absolutely lovely staged vignettes that are sure to provide you with loads of inspiration. My favorite:

Does the table look familiar? Take a glimpse at the first picture of the post! Yep ... same one! But gorgeous in this setting as well. The juxtaposition of rough and refined is really spectacular.

Artie Vanderpool - Decorator & Blogger

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